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FTC proposes Do Not Track tool for Web marketing

WASHINGTON (AP) -Federal regulators are proposing to create a
"Do Not Track" tool for the Internet so that people could prevent
marketers from tracking their Web browsing habits and other online
behavior in order to target advertising.

The proposal, inspired by the government's existing "Do Not
Call" registry for telemarketers, is one of a series of
recommendations outlined in a privacy report released Wednesday by
the Federal Trade Commission. The report lays out a broad framework
for protecting consumer privacy both online and offline as personal
data collection becomes ubiquitous - often without consumer
knowledge.

The FTC hopes the report will help guide the marketing industry
as it develops self-regulatory principles to define acceptable
corporate behavior and inform lawmakers and other policymakers as
they draft new rules of the road to protect privacy. The FTC has
limited authority to write those rules itself, so new regulations
would likely require congressional action.

Protecting consumer privacy, the agency says, is critical as
marketers - particularly online marketers - are analyzing the
websites consumers visit, the online links they click, Internet
searches, online and offline purchases, the physical locations of
cell phones and other wireless devices and all sorts of personal
information disclosed on social networking sites.

The FTC envisions a Do Not Track tool as a way to give consumers
more control over all this data collection. FTC chairman Jon
Leibowitz first floated the idea in congressional testimony over
the summer.

The concept is loosely based on the FTC's National Do Not Call
Registry, which was initiated in 2003 and has been widely acclaimed
for allowing Americans to eat their suppers in peace. More than 190
million people have listed their phones on the registry, which
prohibits calls from telemarketers. Violating the registry subjects
telemarketers to civil penalties up to $16,000 per violation.